At least one DCFS worker back on job after failing to take action before death of Amaria Osby
CHICAGO (CBS) -- This spring, an investigator and supervisor from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services were taken off child protective duties after failing to keep up on the case of Amaria Osby.
Police say the 8-year old's mother later admitted to smothering her with a plastic bag. That mother is charged with murder.
We have now learned that at least one of those DCFS workers has been given the green light to return to caring for kids.
As CBS 2's Chris Tye reported Tuesday night, that news is not sitting well with Amaria's family.
Those workers failed to check on Amaria for 61 days. It violated DCFS policy that attempts be made every 24 hours.
The department admitted it was a failure – but now it seems they've decided enough time has passed for at least one, possibly both, of the workers involved to return to protecting the state's most vulnerable children.
Police say Amaria's mother, Andreal Hagler, admitted to putting a bag over her daughter's head and suffocating her - as the 8-year-old shouted, "Mommy, stop!"
Hagler is now charged with murder. Police said Hagler told investigators she killed her daughter because the little girl loved her father more. But Amaria's father, DeMarcus Osby, told Tye back in June the death was more about a DCFS visit to the Uptown apartment just hours earlier.
"That's the reason my daughter is dead, because she told the truth to the agent," Osby said in June. "She told the truth. She didn't lie."
That truth Amaria told, Osby said, was that "her mother was beating her."
DeMarcus Osby said he was denied custody of his daughter. So on March 23, he called for A DCFS welfare check.
DCFS policy says when such a call comes in, "good faith attempts must be made every 24 hours or sooner, including weekends and holidays, until the child victim is seen." In this case, 61 days passed before Amaria was seen by DCFS - and on the 61st night, she was killed.
"They could have her. They could have got my daughter," Osby said in June. "They could have got my daughter and saved her life."
"They" are the DCFS investigator and supervisor assigned to her case.
CBS 2 has learned the supervisor on Amaria's case was pulled from child protection duties, and placed On desk duty June 1. The supervisor was reinstated Sept. 14, and given "verbal discipline for failure to perform supervisor duties."
The investigator in Amaria's case was on medical leave in early June and has been on leave of absence since July 28. The investigator is scheduled to return to work Dec. 30 for a disciplinary hearing.
"Either they should go to jail, or they should be terminated from any government job," DeMarcus Osby said Tuesday.
CBS 2 shared the late news about the investigator and supervisor with Amaria's father Tuesday. Osby said the first Thanksgiving and Christmas without the girl he calls "his heart" has been brutal.
What's worse, Osby said, was learning both of these workers could soon be back protecting other kids.
"You're supposed to help her. You didn't help her," Osby said. "You let her down, and then on top that, you put me in that box with her - because my heart is gone."
CBS 2, the Cook County Public Guardian, and Mr. Osby's attorneys have asked DCFS for more detail on exactly what those DCFS workers saw in that house the day Amaria was killed. So far, all we've been given is a 24-word summary, and DCFS says they will not be commenting further.
The Cook County Medical Examiner has yet to release their report on the condition of Amaria's body, which could reveal how much abuse Amaria suffered prior to her murder.
We will continue to press for answers.
